The miners became confined underground at the Pinabete mine in the border state of Coahuila on August 3 when their excavation work led a tunnel wall to collapse and unleashed flooding.

The surge came from the nearby Conchas Norte mine, which closed due to flooding in 1996 and has since accumulated nearly two million cubic metres of water, said Laura Velazquez, head of Mexico's civil protection agency.

Engineers plan to seal off the Pinabete and Conchas Norte mines from one another while continuing to pump water out of Pinabete, Velazquez said.

Mexican officials last week managed to reduce water depths at Pinabete, in the Sabinas municipality, that had initially topped about 30 metres. But by Monday the water levels rushed back to their heights at the time of the collapse, in one shaft reaching more than 40 metres.

A rescue team on Sunday was preparing to descend into one of the mine shafts when the water flooded back, Velazquez noted.

"This sudden entry forced us to stop the whole entry plan," Velazquez told a regular government news conference.

A video camera lowered into the shaft revealed debris of pipes and cables floating in the "extremely murky water," she added.

An attempt to enter the mine last week, when the water levels were lower, was also thwarted by debris and darkness.

Australian Associated Press